Monday, March 02, 2015

garage rap # 17

In a recent Wire Invisible Jukebox with Butterz boyz Elijah and Skilliam, the 1989 rave classic "£20To Get In" by Shut Up And Dance was played.Elijah exclaimed excitedly that Serious One, their Butterz club MC, was the nephew of one member of SUAD, then elaborated on the thread of contiNUUMity that ran from Eighties (UK sound system culture / fast chat / britrap) through Nineties ( ardkore / jungle / UKG) to the 21st Century (grime ).

"The voice, the English and Jamaican accents, that's intrinsic to grime and to living here, in East London. That's why I know Shut Up And Dance Music, just by DNA.... You don't need the ID".

Skilliam added, "It's music that you've grown up with."

The exchange reminded me of an earlier Invisible Jukebox with Goldie sometime in the mid-Nineties when he was also played a Shut Up And Dance track -- quite possibly the very same tune. Goldie came up with a metaphor of a train. Something like: SUAD were right at its head, the engine or the front carriage; Goldie (and Reinforced, Metalheadz, et al) were in a carriage further down; new carriages would keep getting added in time. There can't be many examples of a group who dominated an earlier nuum-phase but then managed to make themselves righteously relevant again like SUAD did with "Moving Up" in 2001.I always bracket "Moving Up" - manic MC chat, sing-songy singjay upfullness, peppy breakstep, Heartless Crew-like positivity - with this other joyous not-quite-garage-rap tune of roughly the same period: